Studs Terkel (2001)
Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death and Dying.
Boiled down to three sentences
Studs Terkel, pushing 90, lets a whole bunch of people talk about death, dying, heaven, hell. There's war stories, AIDS stories, cancer stories, inflected with a clear understanding of how race and class and gender and your sexuality can really get you into more trouble than you need to be in- life as a shit sandwich and all that...
Coolest quote (there's a LOT)
One night we broke into the budget office of Chicago. We stole the records, we reviewed the numbers, and guess what? We found two million dollars that was unused in the city's health budget. We ran to the alderman, Helen Shiller. She made a stirring, stirring speech on the floor of the Chicago city council, saying , “Mayor Daley, you cannot kid us, you cannot lie to us.” In an impassioned plea, she revealed the truth to the entire council that magical day: “How do you explain these figures? How is it that this money has been unspent? And why are you telling the health department and people with AIDS in Chicago there is no money for services like affordable housing, transportation to clinics, groceries. How dare you. This is unconscionable.' The mayor was flabbergasted because I'm sure he's thinking, How the hell did you get this information? The vote was unanimous, the bill was passed, and two million dollars that we discovered was indeed available went to the organisations that were involved with the day-to-day life of people living with AIDS.
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Should it be read? If so, by whom?
Everyone should read this, whether they've got a terminal disease or not.
And everyone does have a terminal disease. It might take them 70 years to die, but they got it.
Other things on this theme I have read/seen that I'd recommend
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
Body Work, a brilliant short documentary
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Other things on this theme that I should get round to
dunno. Suggestions welcome.
Other things by this author that I should get round to
Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (1970) ISBN 0394427742
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do (1974). ISBN 0394478845
Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times (1977) ISBN 0394411021
American Dreams: Lost and Found (1983)
The Good War (1984) ISBN 0394531035
When/where I first encountered this author
Peter Euben, in Classical Political Theory, mentioned Working. Terkel just snuffed it of course, in October 2008
When/where I bought this book
Just before Xmas, from that cool remainder bookshop at the foot of Waterloo Station.
1 comment:
I think its time that reading group for Manchester got going...I see you already have some suggestions..
:)
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